Government Technology Magazine October 2011 · 2016-11-29 · Subscription Information: Requests for subscriptions may be directed to Subscription Coordinator by phone or fax to the

VOL24 ISSUE10 | OCTOBER 2011

INSIDE: Frequency Feud: GPS and 4G providers spar over interference

Google Plus: Is it ready for government?

Good Deeds: E-recording saves county time and money

A P U B L I C A T I O N O F e . R E P U B L I C govtech.com

PLUS:Who’s winning the cloud war?

HOW AUTOMATION IS TRANSFORMING PUBLIC SAFETYMAN

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The inside pages of this publication are printed on 80 percent de-inked recycled fi ber. www.govtech.com // October 2011 3

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Can an ambitious new 4G wireless

network coexist with vital location

services?

By Colin Wood

It’s not exactly RoboCop, but

technology is making cops safer

and more eff ective.

By Brian Heaton COVER IMAGE: iSTOCKPHOTO.COM/TOM McKEITH

October 2011

14 / Growing Pains

COVER STORY

20 / Automation Meets Policing

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DEPARTMENTS

30 / Who’s Winning the Cloud War? Analysts look at the state of competition for cloud business among Microsoft, Google and Amazon.

34 / Social SceneAgencies keep an eye on the popularity of Google Plus and wait for a chance to join.

38 / Good Deeds County e-recording system saves citizens time and money through online fi ling.

40 / Access PointPinellas County, Fla., residents video conference with jail inmates from a mobile visitation bus.

COLUMNS

6 Point of View The Best Laid Plans

12 Four Questions Rob Mancini, CTO, Washington, D.C.

50 Gov2020 What government agencies

can learn from a good marriage.

NEWS

8 govtech.com/extra Updates from Government Technology’s

daily online news service.

10 Big Picture Masdar City is hoped to be a global

model for sustainability.

28 Special Report 2011 Best of the Web: Sites to See

44 Spectrum More research, more science,

more technology.

46 Two CentsGovernment Technology reviews the

Hewlett-Packard ProBook 6460b.

48 Product News New stuff from Security Engineered

Machinery, Ricoh, Scottevest, Tuff Luv.

Group Publisher: Don Pearson, [email protected]

EDITORIALEditor: Steve Towns, [email protected]

Assoc. Editors: Matt Williams, [email protected]

Elaine Pittman, [email protected]

Jessica Mulholland, [email protected] Chad Vander Veen, [email protected]

Managing Editor: Karen Stewartson, [email protected]

Chief Copy Editor: Miriam Jones, [email protected]

Features Editor: Andy Opsahl, [email protected]

Staff Writers: Hilton Collins, [email protected]

Brian Heaton, [email protected]

Sarah Rich, [email protected]

Contributing Writer: Colin Wood, [email protected]

Editorial Assistant: Natalie August, [email protected]

DESIGNCreative Director: Kelly Martinelli, [email protected]

Art Director: Michelle Hamm, [email protected]

Senior Designer: Crystal Hopson, [email protected]

Illustrator: Tom McKeith, [email protected]

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Production Manager: Joei Heart, [email protected]

PUBLISHINGVP Strategic Accounts: Jon Fyff e, jfyff [email protected]

Reg. Sales Directors:

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Account Managers:

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Bus. Dev. Dir.: Glenn Swenson, [email protected]

Bus. Dev. Managers: John Enright, [email protected]

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to Publisher: Julie Murphy, [email protected]

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National Sales Admin: Jennifer Valdez, [email protected]

Dir. of Marketing: Andrea Kleinbardt, [email protected]

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Dir. of Custom Events: Lana Herrera, [email protected]

Custom Events Managers: Tanya Noujaim, [email protected]

Gina Fabrocini, [email protected]

Cust. Events Coordinator: Megan Turco, [email protected]

Custom Events Admin.: Sharon Remeiro, [email protected]

Dir. of Custom Media: Stacey Toles, [email protected]

Custom Media Editor: Emily Montandon, [email protected]

Sr. Custom Media Writer: Jim Meyers, [email protected]

Custom Media Writer: Noelle Knell, [email protected]

Cust. Media Proj. Asst.: Courtney Hardy, [email protected]

Dir. of Web Products

and Services: Zach Presnall, [email protected]

Web Services Mgr: Peter Simek, [email protected]

Custom Web Products

Manager: Michelle Mrotek, [email protected]

Web Advertising Mgr: Julie Dedeaux, [email protected]

Web Services/Proj. Mgr: Adam Fowler, [email protected]

Subscription Coord.: Eenie Yang, [email protected]

CORPORATECEO: Dennis McKenna, [email protected]

Executive VP: Don Pearson, [email protected]

Executive VP: Cathilea Robinett, [email protected]

Executive Editor: Steve Towns, [email protected]

Chief Content Offi cer: Paul Taylor, [email protected]

CAO: Lisa Bernard, [email protected]

CFO: Paul Harney, [email protected]

VP of Events: Alan Cox, [email protected]

Chief Marketing Offi cer: Margaret Mohr, [email protected]

Government Technology is published by e.Republic Inc. Copyright 2011

by e.Republic Inc. All rights reserved. Government Technology is a

registered trademark of e.Republic Inc. Opinions expressed by writers

are not necessarily those of the publisher or editors.

Article submissions should be sent to the attention of the Managing

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4 October 2011 // www.govtech.com

WWW.GOVTECH.COM

Vol 24 | Issue 10

Mission Impossible?States worry that 2014 health benefi ts exchange deadline is too tight.

Transparency on TrialIt’s been three years since Obama’s Open Government Memo, what have we learned?

Broadband ParadiseOffi cials in Hawaii hope to deliver aff ordable 1 Gbps connectivity by 2018.

FOLLOW US ON

IN OUR NEXT ISSUE:



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By Chad Vander Veen / Associate Editor

RAISE YOUR

VOICEYour opinions matter to

us. Send comments about

this issue to the editors at

[email protected].

Publication is solely at the

discretion of the editors.

Government Technology

reserves the right to edit

submissions for length.

The Best Laid Plans

As I write this column two days before the 10th anniversary of September 11th, I’ve come to real-

ize that like most Americans, I will never forget the events of that morning. I had graduated from the University of Redlands four months earlier and was living with my father in San Bernardino, Calif. I was awoken by a text message I had received on my sleek, new Nokia 5190 cell phone. The message was from my mother and read, simply, “Turn on the TV.” I groggily did as instructed and was astonished to see what seemed like an endless loop of replays showing giant airplanes smashing into the twin towers.

I didn’t have much time to watch the news since I had to go to work. Back then, I was beginning what I’d convinced myself was a promising career renting cars for a company that rhymes with Schmenterprise. That day I’d been assigned to a tiny rental car branch at the San Bernardino Hilton. Upon arriving, I spent nearly all of my working hours sitting in the hotel bar watch-ing coverage of the attacks. Everyone in the bar was transfi xed, each of us no doubt trying to make sense of what we were seeing. The few customers who actually needed a rental car ended up delaying whatever plans they had and joined the crowd gaping at the TVs.

A few days after 9/11, I moved to Sacramento. With all my worldly and almost uniformly worthless possessions loaded into the back of my little Nissan pickup truck, I headed north. My plan was to live nearer to my then-girlfriend, who’d enrolled in graduate school at San FranciscoState University. I would move in with a fraternity brother who’d taken a job at the state capitol. Eventually, I thought, I’d marry that girl, buy a house in the suburbs, have a couple of kids and keep slinging rental cars for a living.

That awful day marked a new chapter in my life. I had all my life’s major plans in place. In a rare bit of luck, everything actually went according to said plans, except for the rental car thing. Turns out I’m not very good at upselling people into SUVs and unnecessary car insurance. With a decade now having passed since 9/11, I wonder what sort of plans those who died that day might have had. And I grimace at the thought of those plans being wiped from existence in a few moments of fi re and horror.

So instead of using this month’s column attempting to convey some trite message about budgets, servers or mobile apps, I hope instead to share how important it is that we all try to fi nd a bit more joy in each day, hug our loved ones a few seconds longer, and cling a little less tightly to the plans we’ve made.

POINT OF VIEW


A N A W A R D - W I N N I N G P U B L I C A T I O N

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New Mexico May Consolidate IT Department

WHO SAYS?“An exaflop supercomputer’s performance is the equivalent of every

person on Earth making about 150 million calculations per second.”

www.govtech.com/technology/Intel-Forms-Subsidiary-Federal-Government-Supercomputing.html

govtech.com/extra: Updates from Government Technology’s daily online news service.


New Mexico could be the latest state to consolidate its IT department under an existing

agency if legislators back an effi ciency proposal from Gov. Susana Martinez. On Sept. 6,

Martinez unveiled an ambitious agenda for the start of the Legislature’s special session.

In an offi cial proclamation, the governor said several state agencies should be merged to

address a “bloated” executive branch with 22 cabinet positions.

The number of signatures required before the White House will review a petition created using a new online petitioning website called “We the People.”

reader/comments:

“ Viewing the events of 9/11 in

New York from this perspective

makes you realize just how physically

insignifi cant the events were to

America as a whole. Not to downplay

the signifi cance of the loss of life,

but it does justify the reason why

9/11 didn’t break the American spirit.

We always think of things from the

surface, but if we look at the big

picture like this, we realize that this

too shall pass.

Kevin, in response to NASA Releases 9/11 Footage Shot Aboard the ISS

“ Of course mobile devices are

going to exceed PCs in terms of

the numbers used to access the

Internet, but that hardly constitutes

the end of the PC era. The processing

power off ered by the less mobile PC

platform is still required to do most of

the actual work that computers are so

profi cient at. Surfi ng the Web doesn’t

require a lot of horsepower.

BDO, in response to Study: 2015 Could Mark the End of the PC Era

“ Eliminating CTA [California

Technology Agency] could save

the state MILLION$$$$, and would

streamline the entire IT process.

Just a thought ...

Phil, in response to California CIO Carlos Ramos Announces Reorganization of the State’s Technology Administration

“ I agree in part, the whole ‘cloud’

computing thing is a just hip tag for

outsourcing and distributed process-

ing. That has been going on for years.

I have been in this business since

1979 and get a chuckle out of some

of my younger friends who think this

is all something new. I also picked

up on the idea that it is little more than

a sly (not so covert) way to market

the concept.

William J. Cisco, in response to New Commission to Advise State and Local Governments on Cloud

$5.5 million: The amount New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie wants to spend to modernize some of the state’s worst computer operations.

TOP-TWEETED STORIES HOT OR NOT?

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ment Market

38,776 VIEWS

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Least-read stories online: Tornado-Damaged Oklahoma

Town, 17 Others Get USDA

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213 VIEWS

‘Anonymous’ Plans

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GAO: FDIC Must Do

More to Protect U.S.

Financial Data

141 VIEWS

CELL PHONE BAN: Aiming to stop illegal cell phone use by

prison inmates, a bill is moving forward

in the California Legislature that would

authorize the use of “managed access

technology” to block wireless transmis-

sions in California prisons.

5k



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BIG PICTURE



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MA

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What would a sustainable city look like? The answer lies in Masdar City, a 2.3-square-mile carefully planned United Arab Emirates community that relies on solar energy and other renewable energy sources. The project was announced in 2006 and is projected to be complete by 2025.

Everything in Masdar City — which has a $20 billion price tag — has been meticulously designed, constructed and tested to maximize the region’s resources and advocate eco-friendly practices. These practices are refl ected in the use of battery-powered driverless vehicles, photovoltaic panels and an LED tower that changes color to alert people when too much energy is being consumed. Even businesses are carefully selected and must comply with the city’s low-carbon mandate.

Masdar City

www.govtech.com // October 2011 11



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Rob Mancini became Washington, D.C.’s CTO in July after serving as acting CTO since January. An early AOL employee who later worked at several private software firms, he joined D.C.’s Office of the Chief Technology Officer (OCTO) in 2003. During his OCTO career, he worked with a string of high-profile city CTOsincluding Suzanne Peck, Vivek Kundra and Bryan Sivak.

1What is your top priority for OCTO? We’re a young agency.

We were growing up when

Suzanne left. Vivek came in and

had some really good ideas, but

we didn’t have enough maturity in

enterprise architecture standards

and processes to take over IT for the

city. I’ve inherited an agency full of

talented IT professionals. If I can put

a little discipline around that, we can

skyrocket to the top of the IT world.

2How will you do that? When you want to change

the culture and optimize busi-

ness processes, you have to rely

on centers of excellence — and we

have a few of those. We need to

make sure those centers are playing

nicely, and then lift other agency

programs up to that level. The

agency needs a bit of a redesign

because we’re not positioned well

for a leveraged service model.

3What’s the status of the city’s Google Apps deploy-ment? We use Google Docs

extensively across the city. That’s

been a game-changer. We don’t

use a lot of the Gmail piece. When

[Microsoft] Exchange is well run

and well liked by users, it’s hard

to displace it. Gmail may be a

cheaper solution, but it has to pass

the “as-good-as or better” test.

Rob ManciniCTO, Washington, D.C.

DA

VID

KID

D


FOUR QUESTIONS

4Will the city run another Apps for Democracy contest?We’ll move beyond the apps

contest. I’d like to see us partner with business incubators. If we can help startups get off the ground, we could end up with public-private partnerships that pay off well beyond a few apps here and there. We’re working on that now.— Steve Towns, Editor



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Copyright © 2011 Esri. All rights reserved.

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engages citizens, demonstrates transparency, and

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Others have tried and failed, but with a go-ahead pending from the FCC, one wireless broadband company is a step away from transforming the wireless industry. Backed by billionaire hedge fund manager Philip Falcone, Virginia-based LightSquared has signed a 15-year contract with Sprint Nextel and is ready to begin a cooperative eight-year network build-out that would provide terrestrial and satellite-based 4G-long term evolution (LTE) Internet service to 260 million Americans by the end of 2015.

But the contender has a powerful opponent. Light-Squared operates in a band of radio frequency adjacent to GPS, raising fears that the new 4G service could interfere with GPS-based location systems used for public safety, aircraft navigation and other crucial tasks. Indeed, last year, LightSquared’s initial transmissions interfered with GPS receivers — prompting the company to cut both signal strength and the size of its operable spectrum in order to create a buff er between its 4G service and GPS signals.

Additional testing has not yet been done, but analysts predict the changes may eliminate the interference with standard GPS receivers. However, LightSquared still needs to eliminate interference with high-precision receivers, which improve the accuracy of hurricane and earthquake monitoring, as well as farming, construction and surveying

equipment. These high-precision GPS receivers account for roughly .5 percent of GPS receivers used nationally.

The GPS industry is up in arms. It wants the FCC to move LightSquared elsewhere on the frequency spectrum in the name of public safety. LightSquared contends that the problems can be solved without relocating its signal. The By Colin Wood / Contributing Writer

BO

B R

IVE

S

Can an ambitious new 4G wireless network coexist with vital location services?

GrowingsGT10_20.indd 14GT10_20.indd 14 9/23/11 4:19 PM9/23/11 4:19 PM


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LightSquared’s Jeff Carlisle says his company spent$9 million to eliminate GPS interference.



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G R O W I N G P A I N S

Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) sided fi rmly with the GPS industry, issuing a report in July stating that 794 hu-man fatalities would occur from 2014 to 2023 due to “Light-Squared impacts to GPS,” and would cost taxpayers $72 bil-lion in GPS retrofi tting costs. LightSquared maintains that the GPS interference problems stem from a lack of foresight by GPS device manufacturers and noted that LightSquared is also concerned about the public safety ramifi cations. Will GPS and LightSquared fi nd common ground?

A s with any feud, the story of LightSquared’s open wireless broadband network and GPS changes dramatically depending on who’s tell-ing it. In 2002, LightSquared and GPS industry

representatives were on the same page when they drafted an agreement restricting any part of LightSquared’s signal from entering GPS frequencies. In the intervening years, several revisions were made to LightSquared’s plan through the FCC; some industry rules changed and now both par-ties are living with the reality that being a good neighbor is easier said than done. Determining who is in the wrong and what will happen next is a complex matter that will aff ect how much of the country connects to the Internet.

To help make sense of things is Alex Wyglinski, an assis-tant professor at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, who spe-cializes in wireless spectrum and signal processing issues. “It’s kind of scary that they’re trying to do this so close to the GPS band,” he said. “The problem is, there’s not enough spectrum out there.”

Across the United States, 200 million cell phones are stuff ed into purses, jammed into pockets and clipped to belts — and more are added every day. LightSquared simply is attempting to meet that connectivity demand, Wyglinski said. “The problem in modern society is that frequency is getting really crowded.”

Wireless signals aren’t well defi ned like cars driving down lanes on a highway, so every wireless signal automati-cally interferes with every other signal to some degree. But GPS is particularly vulnerable.

“GPS signals are ridiculously weak,” Wyglinski said. “The satellites are something like 20,000 kilometers up in space. When it reaches Earth, it’s an extremely weak signal. The signal from GPS is actually weaker than the thermal agitation of the electrons in the metal of the receiver. ”

The only reason GPS works is because there are complex signal processing algorithms that distill the GPS signal from competing noise and interference within its frequency band. If GPS signals whisper, LightSquared signals scream — and that noisy neighbor could interrupt these quiet conversations.

LightSquared mitigated interference with standard GPS receivers by moving slightly away from GPS on the spec-trum band and lowering signal strength. But this creates new problems for the company, Wyglinski said. Reduced signal power means weaker, spottier service for Light-Squared customers, and creating a buff er zone — known as a guard band — means there is prime spectrum real estate that’s going unused. “It doesn’t make much business sense,” he said. “LightSquared is really stuck between a rock and a hard place.”

A nother problem is the interference with high-precision receivers. If LightSquared can solve that issue, the GPS industry might be appeased. Jeff Carlisle, the company’s vice president of

regulatory aff airs, said LightSquared has been very coopera-tive, and now it’s the GPS industry’s turn to carry the onus.

Interference with high-precision receivers isn’t the company’s fault, Carlisle contends. “The GPS industry council asked us to limit our out-of-band emissions, so we did. We spent $9 million developing a fi lter that did that.”

What the GPS industry didn’t tell LightSquared, Carlisle said, was that high-precision receivers only work properly by reading signals outside the GPS band. In late August, the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation, an IT policy think tank, fi led comments with the FCC sup-porting LightSquared’s claim that the commercial GPS industry is responsible for interference problems between GPS devices and LightSquared’s network. The founda-tion alleged that the manufacturers of high-precision GPS

Because GPS

satellites are

more than

20,000 km

above the

earth’s surface,

GPS signals are

incredibly weak.

SH

UT

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TO

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Who uses high-precision GPS? One of the most outspoken opponents of LightSquared is in agriculture. John Deere sells high-precision GPS systems to farmers who want increased effi ciency and accuracy from their equipment. Using a tripod base station, tractors, combines and sprayers can stay within 2.5 cm of their routes. But the receivers won’t work with LightSquared’s current broadcast settings.

GPS is also used in public safety to monitor earthquake and hurricane data. Because high-precision GPS can measure within centimeters, rather than meters, it can give researchers a more informative data set. In 2008, a team of researchers at Purdue University used GPS to predict the 2010 Haiti earthquake.

High-precision GPS is essential in surveying and construction, and many of the GPS tools used by surveyors would become useless without wide-band capability.



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devices ignored government warnings and guidelines when they built their receivers, deliberately building devices that listen into the satellite L-band spectrum, which is where LightSquared wants to operate.

“The GPS people like to pretend this is something that started a couple of months ago, but they’ve known about this for 10 years,” Carlisle said.

LightSquared isn’t alone in its fi ght against the GPS in-dustry. Many public interest groups and rural community leaders have presented letters to the FCC in support of the company’s plan.

Carlisle also branded the FAA report supporting the GPS industry a dirty political maneuver. “The report itself was completely inaccurate. They didn’t just say it would cause in-terference, they said we would completely knock out GPS for 10 years. Nobody is talking about knocking out GPS for one second,” Carlisle said. “They absolutely refuse to acknowl-edge the fact that high-precision GPS receivers are station-ary. We know where they are. Many of them are near airports and we have to restrict our signal near airports anyway. There needs to be a certain amount of reality injected here.”

I n fear of LightSquared’s broadcasts, hundreds of companies and groups from the GPS industry have united to create the Coalition to Save Our GPS. Jim Kirkland, vice president of Trimble, a maker of GPS

products and founding member of the coalition, said the controversy with LightSquared comes down to a matter of intentions.

LightSquared’s original intent, as authorized by the FCC in 2002, was to off er limited-purpose, ancillary satellite fi ll-in for terrestrial service, Kirkland said. “This sat around in dormancy for eight years, and now they blame us based on a fi ll-in authorization and zero activity in eight years,” he said. “All the people talking now about what the FCC did weren’t even around in 2002.”

LightSquared’s chunk of spectrum is valued at roughly $12 billion, but because of the way it was acquired, the company paid only a small fraction of that cost to acquire it, Kirkland said. “No one knew that they were going to do this. You’re telling me that AT&T or Verizon wouldn’t have bought them out?”

As for the claims that the GPS industry is being unco-operative, Kirkland said that’s an exaggeration — and it’s beside the point, because GPS was here fi rst.

“The GPS industry has worked with LightSquared all along,” he said. “Trimble, my company, has two to three engineers working full time trying to fi nd a solution to this problem.”

But LightSquared, he said, is the newcomer. “If someone came up to you and said, ‘Give me all your money,’ does that make you uncooperative if you say ‘No’? We want to make

this work,” Kirkland said, “but you’re not going to gamble on E911 calls and hurricane prediction.”

A ground network that reaches 260 million Americans by the end of 2015 is LightSquared’s plan largely because the FCC stipulated that fi gure — but it’s good news for rural areas that

have trouble getting broadband Internet access. Akshay Sharma, mobile infrastructure research director at Gartner, said in some ways LightSquared’s plan could end up doing what Obama’s old high-speed Internet plan was supposed to do. “That turned out to be more of a jobs act; wireless is probably a better approach for rural America,” he said. “For these wide swaths of land, you can’t reach every-where with fi ber. LightSquared could even turn a lemon into lemonade.”

With Sprint shutting down the Nextel push-to-talk net-work, LightSquared is in a unique position to provide that functionality with its satellite coverage, Sharma added. And in fact, LightSquared announced in July its intention to provide push-to-talk functionality, emphasizing the ben-efi ts to public safety.

Public interest groups are paying attention to Light-Squared because the company could help reverse growing vertical integration in the telecommunications industry. LightSquared plans to sell service wholesale to wireless re-tailers, which analysts say will give any company a chance to compete with the big boys. Deals with Best Buy, Leap Wireless, Cellular South, Net Talk, South Illinois Wireless, Powernet Global and Open Range have been announced.

Michael Calabrese, a senior research fellow at the New American Foundation, is among the public interest group representatives who have presented the FCC with letters supporting LightSquared. “It’s appalling because essentially the GPS industry has decided that they’re just going to take

Jim Kirkland: GPS-maker

Trimble has

several engi-

neers dedicated

to solving prob-

lems caused by

LightSquared.

TR

IMB

LE



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an absolutist position,” he said. “They’re going to take the spectrum for their own use, they’re not going to give it up, and they’re not going to bear any of the responsibility. The GPS people haven’t done anything since 2003, and from a standing start, now it’ll take time and money.”

The FCC has resolved similar issues before, like when Sprint was forced to rearrange the 800 MHz band so as not to interfere with public safety utilities.

“In that case, the FCC’s order sternly stated that cer-tain parties are trying to attribute blame, but no one was to blame. It’s just crowded. These boundary issues are coming up more and more often. There’s only so much beachfront spectrum,” Calabrese said. “I think the FCC’s motivated to try to fi nd a path for the two industries to coexist.”

A likely solution, he said, includes a multipart plan where the most important GPS infrastructure is fi xed immediately to eliminate interference issues, and old GPS receivers are phased out over several years. The costs, he added, would likely be divided between GPS and LightSquared.

With the telecom industry trending toward a duopoly dom-inated by Verizon and AT&T, Calabrese said the FCC should not only allow LightSquared into the market, the agency also should encourage everyone to fi nd technical solutions that al-low LightSquared to use its entire spectrum. “The L band is a big chunk of a dwindling supply,” he said, “we can’t really aff ord to be throwing it away on a guard band.”

LightSquared’s plan also would allow for more innova-tion in the technology industry, Calabrese said. When Apple released the iPhone, it was forced to partner with a carrier because there are no wireless wholesalers. If LightSquared had been around, Apple or even a much smaller company could have released its device and provided its own service plans, leased through LightSquared.

The deal with Sprint, Calabrese said, was a good move. “That makes us much more hopeful about this. The fact that LightSquared could piggyback on Sprint’s

infrastructure means it’s much more likely LightSquared can do this,” he said, adding that it’s also good for Sprint because it makes it likelier that Sprint can survive the impending duopoly. “I think Sprint has in mind becoming an infrastructure co-op. They might invite other carriers to bring spectrum to their towers.”

I t’s crunch time for LightSquared. If the company wants to begin testing its network next year, as planned, it will need to fi nd a comprehensive solu-tion to its interference problems. Michael Marcus,

a wireless technology expert who worked for the FCC for 25 years, said LightSquared won’t survive if it can’t ace the next round of testing. “The day LightSquared turns on,” he said, “there had better not be interference to most, if not all, GPS units.”

The FCC is unequipped to handle this sort of testing, so the agency has left it to GPS and LightSquared to do the test-ing and return to the FCC with results, Marcus said. “They all hold hands and cooperate, but when you read the paper, you can see some friction going on.” But it won’t matter who is at fault if the interference problems aren’t fi xed, he said, because ultimately, GPS is too important to worry about playing the blame game.

[email protected]

Carlisle: The

danger to GPS

is overblown.

BO

B R

IVE

S

Organizing the Band: Allowing LightSquared to build a full-fl edged network in its current spec-

trum band — known as the Mobile Satellite Service or MSS band — doesn’t make any sense, contends Jim Kirkland, founding member of the Coalition to Save Our GPS. LightSquared’s current chunk of spectrum is a legacy of the company’s initial business plan to create a land-based network to fi ll gaps in satellite network coverage, Kirkland said, explaining that, “[In] spec-trum planning and management, you put similar uses next to each other.”

In early September, the House Committee on Science, Space and Tech-nology heard testimony from Scott Pace, director of the Space Policy Insti-tute at George Washington University. Pace, who has been involved with GPS issues for more than 20 years, proposed that the FCC, Obama admin-istration and Congress deny LightSquared operation in its current state and withdraw its license to operate in the MSS band. Allowing LightSquared to operate without searching for alternate solutions, Pace said, violates the traditional organization of wireless spectrum and creates interference issues.

Pace proposed one solution — allowing LightSquared’s satellites to operate in their current spectrum location adjacent to GPS, but moving the company’s terrestrial service elsewhere on the spectrum. Space on the wire-less spectrum may be hard to come by, he said, but jeopardizing a utility as important as GPS is not an option. “When it comes to spectrum effi ciency, GPS is arguably the most effi cient use of spectrum the world has ever seen,” Pace said. “Almost a billion people are currently benefi ting from the 20 MHz GPS signal that is available today.”



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Discover Over 250 Contractsin 16 Commodity CategoriesYou may have joined TCPN to use one particular contract, but dial up your efficiency by utilizing the bid law compliant resources available from TCPN. Visit the online app store for contracts at www.TCPN.org/vendors.

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C O V E R S T O R Y

AUTOMATION MEETSGT10_20.indd 20GT10_20.indd 20 9/23/11 4:21 PM9/23/11 4:21 PM


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TS POLICING

IT’S NOT EXACTLY ROBOCOP, BUT TECHNOLOGY IS MAKING OFFICERS SAFER AND MORE EFFECTIVE.

By Brian Heaton / Staff Writer

SH

UT

TE

RS

TO

CK

.CO

M

LLAW ENFORCEMENT technology may

not have reached the point where offi cers

are replaced by cyborgs (think RoboCop),

but new automated devices and robots

are making public safety eff orts more

effi cient and signifi cantly less dangerous.

According to experts, unmanned ground

robots, 3-D technology and various scien-

tifi c developments are slowly but steadily

changing how police, tactical and rescue

personnel spend their time and do their jobs.

Four-wheeled drones (that have more

in common with Mars rovers than screen-

writer Ed Neumeier’s RoboCop character)

are increasingly being used to extend

the eyes and ears of police and military

personnel. A variety of companies are

producing these robots, which are designed

to keep people out of harm’s way.



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For instance, a line of ground and mari-time robots from iRobot, a robot designer and manufacturer, is focused on achieving mission objectives such as observation and investiga-tion. The company’s small unmanned ground vehicles have been used by bomb squads and SWAT teams to gather information prior to raids. Knob Moses, head of iRobot’s Government and Industrial Robots Division and a retired Navy supply offi cer, said giving people the ability to diff use bombs and investigate scenes with a remote presence that features audio and video feeds is a huge safety benefi t. Whether it’s a

hostage situation or a drug lab, the ability to see and hear what’s going on from a distance improves situational awareness and saves lives.

But Moses cautioned that robotics must improve before the devices can truly be a force multiplier. He explained that although iRobot’s machines can cut wires and lift certain items, the extent of that manipulation is less than that of a 7-year-old’s fi ngers, so the robots really can’t replace human hands for complex tasks. Current-generation robots also can’t right themselves if they tip over, he said, so a person would need to go and get the machine.

“What we really would like to be able to do is have a robot go into a building ... know there are stairs there and climb [them],” Moses said, adding that if a robot’s audio and visual signals are lost, he’d also like to see a machine be able to automatically return to the last place it had communications.

“In terms of enhancing what a law enforcement or military unit can do, [a robot] is defi nitely a good tool ... but you still really would not want to use it for more sensitive operations,” Moses admitted.

Automation is changing public safety in other ways too. Take the seemingly mundane task of verifying a person’s

identity. Now fi ngerprints can be checked against law enforcement databases in 60 seconds on the roadside using mobile devices connected wire-lessly to internal systems. This is replacing the time-consuming task of hauling suspects to a police station for a standard fi ngerprint check.

C O V E R S T O R Y


A mobile robot opens the door of a wrecked vehicle to see if any further dangers exist inside the car.

The 30-pound

iRobot SUGV is

a tactical mobile

robot that gath-

ers situational

awareness data

for soldiers and

public safety offi -

cials in dangerous

situations. Various

payloads and

sensors may be

added to extend

its usefulness.

The robot is used

for surveillance

and reconnais-

sance, bomb

disposal, check-

point inspections

and explosive

detection. Envi-

ronmental condi-

tions aren’t much

of a hindrance,

as the SUGV is

designed to

operate on both

rough terrain

and city streets.

The 30-pound

iRobot SUGV is V



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IRO

BO

T

Although mobile fi ngerprint technology has been around for years, its use is now common in law enforcement, including the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) where offi cers utilize Blue Check fi ngerprinting devices as a part of their regular routine.

Blue Check may not be a “James Bond-type” futuristic tool, said LAPD Offi cer Steve

Dolan, but it has signifi cantly impacted offi -cers’ jobs. “As you look at the technology, it is not just what kind of cool gadget it is,” Dolan said. “It is how effi cient you can get work-able data in a meaningful and timely manner to the offi cers, and this [fi lls that] gap.”

Mobile fi ngerprinting technology also helps with public relations: A routine traffi c stop where there are questions about a person’s identity now doesn’t have to frustrate a citizen with a drive to the station, Dolan explained. “Now we can do it in just a couple of minutes, and the quality of contact between the offi cer and citizen is much better,” he said. “Therefore your experience with the police department is more favorable, regardless of whether you get a ticket or not.”

This fi eld-based biometric technology can be viewed as a force multiplier, because it makes offi cers more effi cient. In addition, the technology improves offi cer and public safety by letting offi cers understand who they’re dealing with in a timelier manner.

Other technologies also provide offi -cers with more accurate information in a faster time frame. For instance,

3-D technology is making accident and homi-cide investigations more dynamic. Though not quite at the level seen on popular TV dramas like CSI, 3-D scanners enable law enforce-ment personnel to capture data from crime

3M

CO

GE

NT

Cogent Inc.’s Blue Check mobile fi ngerprint scanner

allows Los Angeles

police offi cers to

verify identities dur-

ing traffi c stops or

other fi eld situations.

The 3-ounce device

confi rms identities

in seconds, eliminat-

ing the need to haul

suspects to a police

station for a standard

fi ngerprint check.




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scenes and create a model that takes a judge or jury on a virtual walk-through of the event.

The Central Virginia Regional Crash Team — a multijurisdictional unit composed of law enforcement agencies in the city of Bedford, Bedford and Franklin counties, the towns of Vinton and Rocky Mount, as well as the Virginia State Police and National Park Service — received two Leica HDS4500 3-D scan-ners in August for use during investigations.

Capt. Jim Bennett of the Bedford Police Department said offi cers investigating a crash scene typically rely on tape measures and other equipment to draw two-dimensional diagrams

and perform calculations to determine the various factors that led to the accident.

But 3-D scanner technology not only produces three-dimensional images, it creates those images much faster and with less manpower. For typical accident investigations, Bennett said six people are sent to the scene, but the 3-D scanners’ effi -ciency means that a crew of two do the same job.

“While it takes us hours or days to take these measurements, [the 3-D scanner] can do a 360-degree scan of a scene in six to eight minutes,” he said.

The process is not much diff erent than what’s seen in a science fi ction movie, where a complete room scan is done by a laser, Bennett said. The


C O V E R S T O R Y

The Leica HDS4500 is

a high-speed,

phase-based,

shorter range

scanner. Phase-

based scanners

use a continuous

laser beam rather

than a pulsing

beam. Continu-

ous lasers scan

from 100,000

points per second

to 500,000 points

per second,

making them a

good choice for

tasks with short

time windows,

according to the

manufacturer.

Besides foren-

sic applications,

these scanners

are widely used

in manufacturing

and architectural

industries.

DU

TC

H P

OLIC

E

Dutch authorities use a 3-D scanner to record the scene of a train crash.

CREDITS: HUMBERSIDE POLICE, PINELLAS COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE, SCHOOL OF SURVEYING AND SPATIAL INFORMATION SYSTEMS, THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES, AUSTRALIA.



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scanner measures the entire scene in eighth-inch increments. Those data points are down-loaded onto a computer, where software uses them to reconstruct a 3-D model of the scene.

In addition to providing the model for inves-tigators and people in a courtroom to visualize certain elements during a trial, the technology lets offi cers respond in court if their version of an incident is challenged by opposing legal counsel.

If there was a murder scene and the suspect was 6 feet 4 inches tall, and a defense attorney off ered an unknown suspect of diff ering height and build as the murderer, Bennett said offi cers can input that data into the 3-D model and use the information to confi rm or deny the plausibility.

“You can go back and re-create [scenarios] and come up with a truer picture of what may have happened, or you can dispel a theory,” Bennett said.

While many people associate tech-nology with gadgets, Dustin Haisler, director of government innovation

for Spigit, a software developer that focuses on idea collection and management, said crowdsourcing and collaboration techniques can make law enforcement more eff ective.

Software programs that collect the thoughts and ideas of offi cers from a “bottom-up” perspective, he says, help break down some of the barriers associated with strict hierarchies in law enforcement agencies. Haisler — former assistant city manager of Manor, Texas — made extensive use of crowdsourcing during his public-sector career.

Spigit’s solutions provide a Web-based plat-form where chatter from offi cers — in the form of ideas or suggestions — can be captured and then voted up or down by the offi cers’ peers and others. Haisler explained that the process is completely transparent so that a chief or decision-maker can see the idea, see how well it may be accepted, and ultimately make a decision on the idea.

“We are using behavioral science to make this process fun in an agency, but also to allow this chain of command that is traditionally within an agency to really be broken down,” Haisler said. “We operate on the premise of allowing anyone, whatever their role is within an agency, to submit their recommendations or to help validate and comment.” This way, he says, it grows through this process into something more actionable.

The open data movement being embraced globally is another advancement Haisler sees growing in importance for law enforcement agencies. While there are countless streams of data being compiled by databases and published online, Haisler said he believes citizens and police offi cers adding “contextual intelligence” to the data will add value to it and help investigators solve complex crimes.

Haisler also said most police offi cers serving a community know where crime hot spots are, but interactive use of open data might solve the deeper questions about the root cause of some crimes.

“It is probably going to be driven by allowing even citizens to look at open crime maps and use them like a virtual bulletin board,” he said. “[Right now], they can see it, but they can’t say, ‘Here is a piece of information about it or some-thing you need to know.’ Allowing that informa-tion to get back to offi cers can help them better do their jobs.”

[email protected]/govtechbrian

VIEWING DETAILS: Black-and-white scans (far left) often are suffi cient and sometimes better for understanding an incident. Some 3-D scanners include an internal camera that allows color images to be draped over 3-D scan points (center). Users also may apply false coloring (immediate left), which shades scan points according to the amount of energy refl ected by the object’s surface.

As you look at the technology, it is not just what

kind of cool gadget it is. It is

how effi cient you can get workable

data in a meaning-ful and timely

manner to the offi cers.



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SC

IEN

TIS

TS

US

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OT

ICS

TO

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: Den

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bots

that

bl

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and

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h ju

st li

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uman

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ould

whe

n un

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rill.

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silic

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, loo

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at

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cien

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syn

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are

blu

rrin

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ries

betw

een

man

and

mac

hine

.



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FEET

: Tec

hnol

ogy

mod

eled

on

the

com

plex

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ly

clim

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led

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sens

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fect

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ultr

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By Brian Heaton | Staff Writer

Sites to SeeAnnual Best of the Web program spotlights government’s best portals.

Best of the Web spotlights the nation’s top state, county and city Web portals based on innovation,

functionality and effi ciency. The portals are judged by a panel of retired government offi cials, senior executives from e.Republic’s Center for Digital Government (CDG) and former Best of the Web winners (who did not compete in this year’s program).

Among the categories reviewed by judges are site accessibility, innovation, cost-savings and level of service to the public. Best of the Web is a joint project between Government Technology and the CDG.

State Winner / ArkansasThe Natural State won for improve-

ments made to Arkansas.gov. CTO Claire Bailey said the state strived to improve service delivery through various apps on its Web portal, such as an enhanced search function, a photo gallery, a much-lauded live chat feature and text4Help, a text messaging-based customer service tool.

Optimizing Arkansas’ mobile Web pres-ence was another a key driver. “We worked to enhance the mobile portal display so

we’d get more ‘full’ content pages,” Bailey explained. The portal also was modifi ed to have a more unifi ed look and feel.

In addition, Arkansas.gov created various service widgets that Web developers can use for free to embed state information directly into other websites and social media. The widgets can be customized for a user’s particular location.

Best of the Web judges were particularly enamored of the widget feature, calling it a “great example of collaboration and really groundbreaking” in terms of deliv-ering local information and services.

City Winner / SeattleSeattle topped the city portal winners.

CTO Bill Schrier said the city worked hard during the past year to improve the portal’s look and feel, spotlighting the work that his staff — and Julie McCoy, Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn’s chief of staff — did to clean up the site’s look and improve the visual experience.

The judges said the site’s layout is consis-tent and that each page is “visually appealing.” Seattle also was commended for its emphasis on blogging. “CityLink blogs not only enable

transparency, but this content is also pushed to RSS feeds and widgets so content is fresh,” one judge said. “Many sites have blogs, but they don’t allow public comments,” added another judge. “This defeats the purpose of a blog. Seattle does it right.”

Seattle wanted to better connect with constituents by being more interactive, Schrier said, so My.Seattle.Gov was devel-oped to let users customize the Web portal. The “My Neighborhood Map” function lets visitors fi nd city services, events and information.

County Winner / Stearns County, Minn.Stearns County, Minn., was the gold

standard in the county portal category. Infor-mation Services Director George McClure said the county took a subject-based, residen-tial approach to building its website.

“We tried to focus on the topic the person had in mind,” McClure said of the site’s navigation bar. “We used the analogy of how you fi nd items in the aisle of your favorite grocery store and grouped all the like items together. We took a unique and fresh approach, and I think that’s one of the strengths of the site.”

Best of the Web judges agreed. Besides complimenting the site’s overall design and use of white space, they highlighted the portal’s interactive mapping and online payment features, as well as social media integration. Judges also thought highly of the automatic redirect to the mobile version of the site, calling it the “best we have seen so far.” In addition, judges praised the site’s blog for kids and interactive calendar.

SPECIAL REPORT


2011 BEST OF THE WEB AWARDS

State Portal Category:1 / Arkansas

2 / Utah

3 / Indiana

4 / Rhode Island

5 / Texas

City Portal Category:1 / Seattle

2 / Louisville Metro

Government, Ky.

3 / Arvada, Colo.

4 / Riverside, Calif.

5 / Danville, Va.

County Portal Category:1 / Stearns County, Minn.

2 / Oakland County, Mich.

3 / Miami-Dade County, Fla.

4 / Pinellas County, Fla.

5 / Roanoke County, Va.

See more Best of the Web winners online at www.govtech.com.



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By Andy Opsahl / Features Editor

S tate and local governments are expanding their use of cloud-based services, but it’s hard

to pick a clear winner among cloud providers in the public-sector market.

To some geeks in government, Google’s 2009 defeat of Microsoft to run e-mail for Los Angeles was akin to Luke Skywalk-er’s blow to the Empire in Star Wars. By October 2010, Microsoft struck back, signing an e-mail contract with New York City, moving 100,000 public servants to its cloud. In 2011, San Francisco also took e-mail to Microsoft’s cloud and Wyoming became the fi rst state to use the Google Apps for Government suite. These are just a few of the higher-profi le examples.

Several other local governments currently buy cloud services from Google, Microsoft and other providers. Amazon Web Services (AWS) has crept up as another top contender with its growing list of federal agency cloud customers. But given that there’s no dominant player,

analysts are left basing their predictions of success on the perceived strengths of the household name providers. For example, Microsoft’s cloud has the lure of off ering virtually the same applications that govern-ment employees already use — Microsoft Offi ce. Google has been positioned as a low-cost, anti-incumbent challenger of Microsoft. While AWS is viewed as the charmingly scrappy hosting provider whose services are already attained under the radar by government programmers.

Insight from a few analysts could give CIOs more focus when assessing the cloud computing trend.

Broad Services Versus Storage OnlyWhile Google, Microsoft and AWS

are often seen as the top contenders for government cloud business, they’re not always contenders for the same types of cloud business, said Rob Enderle, prin-cipal analyst for advisory fi rm Enderle Group. If governments want e-mail and other business applications as a part of a cloud contract, that would typically be a

contest between Microsoft and Google.“Both Google and Microsoft are trying

to provide broad services to that set of customers; Amazon is mainly storage,” Enderle said.

Enderle expects Microsoft to do best with larger governments and Google with smaller ones. For large agencies moving massive e-mail systems to the cloud, Microsoft could be viewed by CIOs as a less risky choice, he said, especially if prob-lems arise. A CIO on the hot seat to explain technology choices may fi nd Microsoft easier to defend, given the company’s long, tested history as an incumbent.

By comparison, Google Apps for Govern-ment is better positioned for smaller governments. “As you get down to city government, Google looks better because it doesn’t have this big enterprise mentality that Microsoft has with regard to engage-ment [of customers],” Enderle said, adding that Google could play into sour feel-ings in government about Microsoft.

“Any vendor that has been working with anybody a long time is going to have

INNOVATION


TO

M M

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H Who’s Winning the Cloud War?Analysts look at the state of competition for cloud business among Microsoft, Google and Amazon.



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INNOVATION

customers who are unhappy, and Google can play on that really well. It’s a chal-lenger and without a lot of history.”

Google often has an edge on price too, he added, which would likely appeal to smaller governments.

“[Google is] the most heavily subsi-dized, and [it is] trying to buy into the market,” Enderle said. “If price is your driving factor, then Google is going to look awfully good to you, particularly if you’re pissed off at Microsoft.”

Seeming to play into Google’s attractive-ness to smaller governments is an observa-tion from Charles King, principal analyst for Pund-IT Inc., an IT industry analysis fi rm. He said Google Apps customers typically fi nd the product to be a satisfac-tory replacement for Microsoft Offi ce, assuming they don’t need more expan-sive off erings, like Microsoft Publisher.

“You’re basically buying a set of Web-delivered apps that have fewer capabili-ties than Microsoft Offi ce does,” King said. “The real question there is whether you need all of the bells and whistles that Microsoft provides. For many people and companies, particularly those economi-cally constrained, a ‘good enough’ suite like Google’s could make sense.”

Regarding security, Microsoft is perceived as being the strongest, said Enderle. As evidence, he pointed to the frequent news coverage of the bounties Microsoft has off ered to catch cyber-crim-inals. Bounty prices from Microsoft have been in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“If there is a breach, they are one of the fi rms that are very aggressive in terms of working with law enforcement to bring the people down,” he said.

Google is stereotyped as less secure because it scans the free Gmail accounts it hosts in order to sell advertising, Enderle said. Enterprise-tier customers often believe the same applies to them, he said, even though the scanning function can be disabled in Google Apps for Government.

“The fi rm makes [much of ] its money in advertising, so it carries the percep-tion of being a fi rm that is not secure,” Enderle said. “Perceptions guide buying behavior. It may be as [much as] or more secure than the other off erings.”

If a government merely wants to store data or host a website, AWS is an attractive

option. Enderle said AWS isn’t viewed as secure as Microsoft, but it’s perceived as more secure than Google and off ers aff ord-able prices. Besides being the backbone for the federal government’s Recovery.gov, AWS hosts sites for the U.S. depart-ments of Treasury, Energy and State.

In the matter of overall market iden-tity, King thinks Microsoft comes across as more focused on cloud services

than Google, which he said, can seem all over the map to customers.

“They have tons of projects going on in tons of diff erent areas,” King said. “The problem with that is, I don’t think the public, businesses and govern-ment have a really clear view of what Google’s value proposition will be for them as a cloud services provider. There is just too much going on.”

Cloud Under CoverAnother stake Amazon has in the

government cloud market is limited use of AWS’ hosting by agency program-mers for developing Web applications, said King. Enderle said he’s also heard of this happening frequently in govern-ment, usually without the CIO’s approval.

“It’s basically to test drive [the applications] online with Amazon to see how they would work in the real world,” King explained. “You get access to a signifi cant amount of computing

power without putting any kind of stress on your own data center.”

Thanks to Amazon’s business model, these developers need little more than their government-issued credit cards to use the service, Enderle said. “When they need something fast and want to bypass process, Amazon is their favorite choice,” he said, adding that, “It is done in govern-ment whether it is a legitimate option or

not. This is one of the commonest prac-tices out there, and it’s across industry — public and private sector. It’s bubbling up to be one of those things that’s giving CIOs nightmares at the moment.”

Enderle said developers typically do this to meet deadlines and survive on inadequate funding.

Montgomery County, Md., CIO Steve Emanuel said such activity could be occur-ring among “distributed” IT workers in individual business departments, rather than developers in a municipal-ity’s central IT group. Emanuel said programmers isolated in business depart-ments could be motivated to purchase third-party hosting services on the sly.

“They cannot just load and run apps on the county systems, so this is a place where it could happen and core IT would never be the wiser,” said Emanuel.

[email protected]

Cloud Comparison

Considered in government to be the

most secure cloud.

Been in business for many years; strong busi-

ness reputation.

Governments consider best fi t for massive cloud

transitions; familiar with its products.

Best known for data storage and website

hosting.

Enables testing of apps without burdening an agency’s data center.

Flexible business model.

Low cost; good for smaller entities.

Has broad service off erings.

It’s not Microsoft.



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By Sarah Rich / Staff Writer

In June, Google threw itself into the social networking fray with the launch of a platform called Google Plus. The fast-

growing service had attracted about 20 million users by September, according to various news estimates. If those numbers — which still pale compared with Facebook’s 750 million users worldwide — continue to expand, government agencies might soon decide that Google Plus is worth supporting.

But does this new off ering have what it takes to make its way into government agen-cies? The answer seems to be, “Not quite yet.”

One reason is that Google hasn’t estab-lished “brand” accounts for use by busi-nesses and organizations (including governments). In a July 6 blog post, the company said it’s working to make brand accounts on Google Plus available later this

year. Google recommends that businesses and organizations delay creating pages until then.

“Businesses and organizations can’t really have an offi cial presence there because [Google Plus] — as it is now — wants to keep all the accounts as personal accounts,” said Lee Yount, a programmer analyst for the Catawba County, N.C., Technology Department. “But that creates quite the challenge for business organizations for external means of communication to the public.”

Yount said his department is poten-tially interested in using Google Plus when the time — and features — are right.

New FeaturesUnlike Facebook and Twitter, Google

Plus separates a user’s followers into diff erent groups or “circles.” According

to Google, this arrangement improves the privacy of communication by allowing a user to post certain information to a specifi c group of people. According to a blog post in August by Jed Sundwall, president of

Measured Voice, an Internet communi-cations consultancy, the circles feature is a good way to organize contacts

and manage distribution of content. Along with circles, Google has created

“huddles,” “hangouts” and “sparks.”Huddles is a group messaging

feature; hangouts are group video chat — whether it’s on a desktop or mobile device; and sparks are content feeds for diff erent topics a user may be interested in, according to Google’s offi cial blog.

What About Security?After brand accounts are available on

Google Plus, a few more tweaks might be necessary so government agencies can use the platform effi ciently. For instance, the platform’s security and customiza-tion features will be crucial, according to Thom Rubel, vice president of research for IDC Government Insights.

“I think it has to be modifi ed in ways that recognize the highly sensi-tive nature of public information and government-owned information,” Rubel said. “It needs to be customized in a way that off ers state and local governments a high level of confi dence that there’s some specifi city around certain kinds of services or government information.”

Catawba County’s Yount said he’d like Google Plus to facilitate a more open exchange of information. He wants Google Plus to emulate Facebook groups andFacebook pages, which are open to all users and don’t require the acceptance of friend requests. Google Plus should follow suit once brand accounts are available to government agencies, Yount said.

“Google is going to have to create that environment for brands or organizations ... so that they can show everybody the infor-mation rather than having to add somebody to a circle or a thing like that,” Yount said.

Growing WorkloadSince social networking fi rst gained

traction among college students with the birth of Facebook in 2004, its purpose has expanded from a platform for communi-

CONNECTIVITY


Social SceneAgencies keep an eye on the popularity of Google Plus and wait for a chance to join.



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Email Newsletters:GovTech Today (DAILY)

Digital Communities (TWICE WEEKLY)

Government Technology Security News (BI-WEEKLY)

Justice & Public Safety Authority (BI-WEEKLY)

Public CIO Executive Update (BI-WEEKLY)

Emergency Management (WEEKLY)

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cating with friends to a way for government agencies to engage with citizens. Whether it’s to announce new services or alert the public of an emergency, social media has slowly evolved into an important source of two-way communication between citizens

and public offi cials. But as govern-

ment agencies use and support more social media platforms, staff workloads increase. If government agen-cies eventually decide to adopt Google Plus, Sundwall said adding

another network to the list will certainly create more complexity for staff in charge of maintaining an agency’s social media pages.

“A lot of agencies and organizations are still trying to catch up to fi gure out how to use social media,” Sundwall said. “I imagine Google Plus is going to change all the time — there are going to be continuous innova-

tions, new functionalities and features, and stuff people need to keep up on. That adds up because you’re already on Facebook, and likely, you’re already on Twitter.”

Before committing to the social network, Rubel said agencies should ask themselves if there’s a specifi c business need that Google Plus addresses. If the answer is yes, agencies should identify

the needs that aren’t currently being met through other social media networks.

Rubel said agencies should ask them-selves questions like, “Does [Google Plus] meet a business need that will improve our services or improve the information that we’re providing to citizens? How so?”

[email protected], twitter/SarahRichforGT

CONNECTIVITY

Hot Spots Facebook140,336

UNIQUE VISITORS

Blogger50,055

Twitter23,617

Wordpress22,417

MySpace19,250

LinkedIn17,786

Tumblr11,870

A comparison of traffi c to the most popular U.S.

social media sites, based on visits in May 2011.

NIE

LS

EN

A lot of agencies and organizations are still trying to catch up to fi gure out how to usesocial media.

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By Brian Heaton / Staff Writer

A new software program has made it easier to record legal documents in Richland County, S.C., and is

saving citizens money and time, according to local offi cials.

Designed by the county’s IT depart-ment, the Web-based Register of Deeds e-Recording System has increased effi ciency at the county’s Register of Deeds offi ce (ROD) by reducing on-site foot traffi c and streamlining the document fi ling process.

Instead of trekking into the offi ce, people can record their documents online. The county estimates the change will save constituents roughly $174,000 per year.

Janet Claggett, CIO of Richland County, explained that the ROD handles approxi-mately 150,000 transactions annually in which citizens, attorneys, abstractors and title company personnel come to the county offi ce to fi le documents and pay fees. By taking the process online, citizens can now record documents anytime they wish, saving both money and time.

“I had the opportunity to chat with one of the managers at our deeds offi ce, and she said that [it] has become almost deserted since we went live,” Claggett said. “Their foot traffi c used to be heavy, but those days are gone.”

To calculate the savings to residents and businesses, the county stayed conser-vative, estimating only 75,000 transactions

CASE STUDY

each year, and averaging the savings based on gas price, mileage and parking costs.

The county launched the program in December 2010 and created e-recording software using a federal stimulus grant for “green” projects. Claggett added that online recordings haven grown quickly since the program went live and estimates that in time, the county should see 80 to 90 percent of all documents being fi led online.

In addition to the savings Richland County residents are realizing from the e-recording program, the ROD is seeing benefi ts as well. The offi ce has seen improvements in effi ciency and accuracy in the county’s document collection and fi ling process, Claggett said.

Local Praise and Future ProjectsThe e-recording system’s success has

been noticed locally. The program won a fi rst-place 2011 Palmetto Pillar Award, in the category of “Custom Applica-tion Development.” The annual awards program, hosted by the Greater Columbia Chamber of Commerce Information Tech-nology Council, was held in August.

The event, which honors the area’s leaders in technology innovation, started in 2000. Projects honored this year included startup ventures and public service tech-nology projects. The council also provided

two scholarships to college IT students.Despite its success, Richland County

isn’t resting on its laurels. Claggett said the county has two other custom software projects in progress. One of the eff orts is a four-county collaboration to write custom

software for a computer-aided mass appraisal system used by county assessors. Another is a management system that is used by Richland County’s Premiere Online Data Services.

Although Richland is the project lead on the appraisal system project, the county will go live

last, according to Claggett. “It may sound counterintuitive,” she said, “but we have to stay with the project” until it’s fully operable.

The fi rst county in the group will begin using the system in December, with others to follow in 2012. Claggett said Richland County was an early adopter of the “agile” methodology of software development, where projects are done incrementally using cross-functional teams, and it has been successful for those involved on the project.

“The four county assessors participate in viewing demos of actual working code every 10 days,” Claggett said. “It is amazing to see four jurisdictions collaborate and harmo-nize so well, but the four assessors seem to love this project.”

[email protected]

twitter/govtechbrian

Good DeedsCounty e-recording system saves citizens time and money through online fi ling.

RIC

HLA

ND

CO

UN

TY

Their foot traffi c used to be heavy,

but those days are

gone.



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By Sarah Rich / Staff Writer

V ideo conferencing is often thought of as a useful tool to connect with people in distant

locations. Students and teachers living in foreign countries take advantage of the technology to communicate with loved ones back home, and businesses use video conferencing to hold meet-ings with representatives sprawled across various locations. The technology is also providing a link between inmates and their relatives and friends in Pinellas County, Fla., where all visitations are done electronically. But the public has a choice: go to the jail to video confer-ence with an inmate, or chat from a high-tech bus that travels throughout the county, making stops in certain cities.

The mobile visitation program, which began in 2009, facilitates communicationbetween the public and the incarcer-ated via a high-tech bus. The Sheriff ’s Offi ce purchased the bus and outfi tted it with six laptops that are equipped with video-conferencing software, said Pinellas County Sheriff Jim Coats. To video chat with an inmate, residents register in advance for a 40-minute time slot, according to the Sheriff ’s Offi ce’s website. Each week, the bus visits four cities located within Pinellas County, reducing the number of people using the jail’s onsite visitation facility.

“I thought if we could reduce the demands of our inmate visitation — at the video visitation at the jail complex — and put it out in the community, it would help relieve the demand for services at the complex for video visitation,” Coats said.

Residents can still communicate with inmates from the Video Visitation Center located in the Pinellas County Jail Admin-istration Support building, but Coats said having the visitation bus also benefi ts

those who can’t aff ord to drive to the jail or lack adequate transportation.

Bus, Camera, ActionThe original bus was purchased from

an auction in 2009, but due to mainte-nance problems, the department upgraded to a newer model last year, Coats said.

The six laptops on the bus connect to a wireless modem, which connects to a wire-less access point (WAP) at each of the four locations. This WAP is available via a shared connection provided by local Internet service provider Bright House Networks, said Tom Boos, technical services manager for the Sheriff ’s Offi ce. When the bus comes within 50 to 100 feet of the secured WAP, it picks up the signal, which provides Internet access to the laptop workstations.

Of the six laptops, only fi ve are used at a time. “We’re running it at about a 20-megabit download [speed] and about a 2-megabit upload [speed], and because we’re doing a two-way conversation, we have to send video and audio both ways at the same time,” Boos said. “So we’re

Access PointPinellas County, Fla., residents video conference with jail inmates from a mobile visitation bus.

This bus brings mobile visitation facilities to inmate families.

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BUS SCHEDULE Pinellas County’s visitation bus travels to cities throughout the region.Monday and Wednesday: St. PetersburgTuesday: ClearwaterThursday: Tarpan Springs Friday: LargoFriday: Largo


PUBLIC SAFETY



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trying to squeeze in fi ve simultaneous conversations, and we carve up the band-width that Bright House provides us.”

To match the caller to the proper inmate, a telephone operator at the jail’s visitation center connects video-confer-ence calls made from the bus to one of the 200 video-conference stations at the jail. Boos said visitors schedule calls based on the inmate’s availability.

The department chose video-confer-encing software by VCon, an Isreal-based video-conferencing company, because it’s compatible with the department’s older computer systems, whereas some Web-based services are not. Software by Viewgate automatically turns off the call after the allotted 40 minutes are up.

A Worthy Expense?Creating the mobile video visitation

program carried an initial price tag less than $62,000. The bus cost about $23,000, Coats said. Outfi tting the vehicle with tech-

nology added another $38,400. According to Coats, all funding came from either forfeiture or inmate commissary funds.

Annual expenses include the bus driver’s salary — $34,000 a year with benefi ts — as well as fuel, and the wireless service, for a total of about $50,000 per year. The program

ON THE ROAD The Pinellas County, Fla., Sheriff ’s Offi ce spends about $50,000 annually on its mobile visitation program to link inmates to their families and reduce the number of visitors to the county jail.

may seem like a costly endeavor, Coats said, but it benefi ts inmates and their families.

“About 80 percent of our inmate population is pretrial detention, so these people haven’t even been convicted of the crimes that they’re charged with,” he said. “We think it’s important for the inmate and the family members to have the ability to talk via video visitation.”

[email protected]/SarahRichforGT

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spectrum More research, more science, more technology.


Cardboard homes are no longer makeshift abodes for the homeless. After New Zealand’s magnitude 6.3 quake in February, a landmark church was destroyed, but its replace-ment won’t be the typical structure. A temporary 78-foot-high, 700-seat cathedral from cardboard will take its place for the next 10 years.

Japanese architecture company Shigeru Ban is spearheading the project, which if approved, will be made from cardboard tubes sitting atop a foundation of 20-foot shipping containers. “Emergency architecture” has been used in Haiti and Japan where building materials are very expensive after disasters. SOURCE: POPSCI

Life Online

Researchers are fi nding

that modifying real-life

insects is easier than

building robotic bugs.

Using stimulators placed

near a bug’s antennae

and electrodes implanted

in its central nervous

system, scientists can

control an insect’s brain

— and hence, its fl ight.

Neural control systems

in cyborg insects have

generally been battery-

powered, but researchers

recently demonstrated

an energy scavenger that

makes power from the

wing motion of a green

June beetle. The project is

sponsored by the Defense

Advanced Research

Projects Agency, and the

cyborg insect could be

used in search and rescue,

surveillance and HAZMAT

detection. SOURCE: PHYSORG

Where do Americans spend most of their Internet time?

Insect Inside

Send Spectrum ideas to Managing Editor Karen Stewartson, [email protected], twitter/KarenStewartson

WATCH SPECTRUM AT www.govtech.com/spectrum

Top 10 U.S. Web Brands by Total Minutes, in Billions, Home and Work (Nielsen/May 2011)

Facebook Yahoo Google AOL Media Network

53.5 17.2 12.5 11.4 9.5 9.1 4.5 4.3 4.3 3.4

MSN/Windows Live/

BingYouTube eBay EA Apple Microsoft

NIE

LS

EN

, , gy

Cardboard Cathedral

Researchers are studying

how cyborg insects could help search

and rescue missions.

TelecommutingToward Happiness: People who work from home are happier than those who work in offi ces. A recent study by the Journal of Applied Communication Research found that individuals who work from home were not only happier, but also more productive than those who work in offi ces. Teleworkers also had higher job satisfaction and less stress because they’re better able to balance their work-life confl icts.



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A Special Report on Cloud ComputingThe Center for Digital Government, in partnership with Public CIO,

takes a deep dive into the evolution of cloud computing technology,

identifi es the emerging trends, and discusses the exciting implications

it has for the future of service delivery. See ways you can make

it work for your agency through the innovative and best practice

examples of your federal, state and local peers.

A Must Read for Public Sector Executivespublic-cio.com/reports

Sponsored by:

Coming in November!


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product news By Andy Opsahl | Features Editor


A Hardy, Secure Notebook

Beyond the HP ProBook 6460b’s ability to handle demanding applica-tions, its suite of security features

will likely appeal to agency IT administra-tors who need to support fi eld personnel and road warriors. HP ProtectTools, the company’s security package, off ers several sign-on options and authentica-tion mechanisms to protect the laptop.

After switching on the machine and clicking the facial-recognition access option, my personal favorite, HP Protect-Tools recognized my face using the webcam and gave me access within seconds. It’s a useful luxury for those of us who appre-ciate security but hate passwords. HP cautions that one should activate the facial-recognition feature in conjunction

with another of the machine’s authentica-tion mechanisms, since it’s possible for an intruder to trick the facial recognition with a photograph of the approved end-user.

Users can add fi ngerprint sign-on, which would be screened after the their face was recognized, or have the machine scan and identify a Bluetooth device. And agency help desk workers shouldn’t worry about helping countless employees set up the aforemen-tioned security tools. The company intended its current version of HP ProtectTools to resolve past complaints about user-friendli-ness. I think it succeeded — confi guring the facial recognition, fi ngerprint sign-on and other security tools was intuitive and simple.

HP’s QuickWeb feature takes the user to the Internet with a push of a button — without fi ring up the operating system. Because this functions separately from the operating system, a user can still access the Web, even if the operating system crashes.

As someone without a smartphone (gasp!), I would use this function to in airports to jump on the Web between tight connecting fl ights. But with the prolif-eration of smartphones in state and local agencies, those devices are probably better options for quick Web access, especially for workers routinely out of the offi ce.

Using a liquid reservoir under the keys, the notebook can withstand minor spills, which drain from the bottom of the machine. I couldn’t verify the reservoir’s eff ectiveness, however, because the protec-tive Mylar fi lm on the keyboard kept most of the water I poured from penetrating.

[email protected]

ON THE INSIDE: The notebook is equipped with Intel technology and Windows 7 Professional 64-bit. Powered by a sec-ond-generation Intel Core i5-2410M processor and 4 GB of DDR3 1333 MHz memory, the unit “churns through resource-intensive applications and multitasking,” according to HP. The 14-inch LED-backlit anti-glare display off ers a 1366x768 resolution, while graphics are handled by onboard Intel HD Graphics 3000. Storage options include a 320 GB 7200 rpm hard drive.

REVIEW



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Building the Innovation Nation

an interactive tool of State and Local e-Government performance measures, assessments and research.

Best of the PortalNew Solution Briefs Mobile Services Self Funded Model

Download your free copies at: govtech.com/innovationnation

underwritten by:


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product news By Karen Stewartson | Managing Editor

Send product review ideas to Chief Copy Editor Miriam Jones: [email protected], twitter/MJonesGovtech

Digital Clipboard


Secure ShredShred CDs, credit cards and

ID badges into 2.2-by-4 mm

particles with the Optical

Media Destroyer from Security

Engineered Machinery. The

shredder can destroy 1,583

discs per hour and includes a

power-saving mode, electronic

capacity control to avoid jams

and a 12.25-inch-wide throat.

www.semshred.com

PackratThere’s nothing new about the Scottevest, but this

stylish 22-pocket vest might be your best traveling

gear. Put gadgets, keys, boarding pass, etc. in the

machine-washable vest, then simply take it off when

going through airport security. www.scottevest.com

Guardian Gear Looking for an eco-friendly yet stylish

e-reader case? Tuff -Luv’s cover is made

from hemp and is 100 percent animal

free, but the limited design caters to

few gadgets like the Kindle 3 and

Motorola Xoom. www.tuff -luv.com

Americans use 90 million

tons of paper annually,

according to the

Lawrence Berkeley National

Laboratory’s Environmental

Energy Technologies Division.

In fact, despite the long-running

movement toward paperless

processes and trans-

actions, the U.S.

remains the world’s

biggest paper con-

sumer, according to The State of

the Paper Industry report.

The public sector is no

stranger to the stationery con-

versation. Government agencies

often boast about effi ciencies

they’ve gained as a result of

going paperless. Even the U.S.

Treasury Department recently

started issuing paperless bonds.

Ricoh’s new eQuill, a feather-

weight tablet that allows for a

digital workfl ow, may help simplify

the process of going paperless.

The “digital clipboard” writes like

pen on paper and stores roughly

25,000 pages locally. The

“e-paper” screen is 9.7 inches,

has a 20-hour battery life and can

be charged using a micro-USB

cable or power adapter. Users

can record data with the stylus,

5 megapixel camera, keyboard

or voice recorder.

In addition, the device

includes authentication tech-

nology that protects document

integrity without creating extra

work for users, according to

the company. For government

agencies, that means elec-

tronic documents created with

eQuill will stand up in court just

like paper, Ricoh says.

www.ricoh-ews.com

For more product news, log on to explore Government Technology’s Product Source. govtech.com/products



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Steve Ressler is the founder

and president of

GovLoop, a social

networking site

for government

officials to connect

and exchange

information.

By Steve Ressler


A few weeks ago, I was at my county clerk’s offi ce trying to get my marriage certifi cate. Like many folks in my

generation, I’m having a ceremony, but it’s not in a church and my friend is the offi ciant. There-fore, I must get the offi cial marriage certifi cate completed and signed at the clerk’s offi ce before my actual wedding.

In my conversation with the customer service rep at the clerk’s offi ce, two items struck me as to how my local government is failing to deal with change.

First, my fi ancée is from Spain, so she has two last names. As a corn-fed Caucasian from Ohio, it took me awhile to understand it (you mean your mom’s last name is your middle name? No! I have two last names). When we were fi lling out the marriage license, the customer service rep attempted to input both surnames, but the system couldn’t deal with the situation — it wanted to hyphenate them. We explained it to the representative, who completely understood the situation. “It happens to me 10 times a day,” she said, “but the technology guy says we can’t fi x the fi elds.” I live in Florida, where 22 percent of citizens are Hispanic, so this is not a rare problem.

Second, the customer service rep said she’s seen a spike in what she calls “yuppies” coming to the clerk’s offi ce to get a marriage certifi cate before the wedding. She said it’s interesting, as it has increased the number of formerly rare questions (like how to get friends ordained in a

given state), changed the popular times for people to come in, and changed the type of clientele. The agency, however, hasn’t made any changes to adapt to these needs.

This happens all the time to cities and counties. Your citizenry

and their desires shift, but how do you keep up?

Companies deal with the same issue. Just a few months back, a new music company called Spotify entered the U.S. market with an unbeat-able proposition — unlimited streaming music on your computer for free, but $10 per month for access from their mobile device. My best friend just shook his head. How can the whole music industry be supported by a $10 per month subscription on mobile versus buying CDs and iTunes? My local record shop has switched gears, selling less CD and vinyl, and morphing into a hybrid coff ee shop/lunch spot with the remaining collectible records and memorabilia as art.

If my local record store can listen to customer demands, so should government. As budgets continue to shrink, government needs to constantly listen to citizen demands, whether they’re driven by changing demo-graphics, new technologies or other issues.

A good friend recently gave me this advice about marriage: The key is to continually grow with each other every day, because if you’re not, one day you’ll look at each other, won’t know each other and will no longer be compatible.

To me, the analogy applies to government and citizens, whose relationship must be a two-way street, growing together — where government is continually listening to the demands and desires of its citizens. This is not an annual exercise, but a daily relationship with feedback to improve services.

Dealing With ChangeWhat government agencies can learn from a good marriage.

Index JURISDICTIONS/AGENCIESArkansas ......................................................................... 28

Catawba County, N.C. ..........................................34, 26

Central Virginia Regional Crash Team ................... 24

DARPA .............................................................................. 44

FCC ............................................................................... 14-18

Federal Aviation Administration ......................... 16, 17

Florida ..............................................................................50

Haiti ................................................................................... 44

Japan ................................................................................ 44

Los Angeles Police Department.............................. 23

Masdar City ..................................................................... 10

Measured Voice .................................................... 34, 36

New Jersey .......................................................................8

New Mexico ......................................................................8

New Zealand ................................................................. 44

Pinellas County Sheriff ’s Offi ce ........................40, 42

Richland County, S.C. .................................................. 38

Seattle .............................................................................. 28

Shigeru Ban.................................................................... 44

Stanford University....................................................... 27

Stearns County, Minn. ................................................. 28

Washington, D.C. ........................................................... 12

VENDORS3M Cogent ...................................................................... 23

Amazon ....................................................................30, 32

Google ................................................ 30, 32, 34, 36, 44

Hewlett-Packard ........................................................... 46

iRobot ...............................................................................22

Leica ..........................................................................24, 25

LightSquared ............................................................. 14-18

Microsoft............................................................30, 32, 44

Nokia ...................................................................................5

Ricoh................................................................................. 48

Scottevest ....................................................................... 48

Security Engineered Machinery .............................. 48

Spigit.................................................................................25

Sprint Nextel ........................................................14, 17, 18

Tuff -Luv ............................................................................ 48

Vcon...........................................................................40, 42

Viewgate ..................................................................40, 42

ADVERTISERS INDEXCDWG .................................................................................2

CenturyLink ....................................................................29

Dell ....................................................................................52

ESRI .....................................................................................13

Motion Computing .........................................................31

NetApp ............................................................................ 39

New World Systems .................................................... 33

Realauction.com LLC.................................................... 51

Rittal Corporation ............................................................9

TCPN ................................................................................. 19

U.S. General Services Administration ....................... 7

University of Maryland University College ........... 36

Workday .............................................................................5

GOV 2020



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Protect the community in demanding situations with reliable, end-to-end technology solutions designed specifi cally for Public Safety by Dell with the Intel® CoreTM i5 processor.

©2011 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. Intel, the Intel logo, and Intel Core are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries.

Enable your team with innovative and effi cient solutions by calling 1-866-401-0152 or visiting Dell.com/PublicService.

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